Intersecting Lines

Today we took a field trip to the Birmingham Art Museum for a new tour called Intersecting Lines: Math in Art. It was so cool! The docent talked to the kids about math concepts while pointing out pieces that demonstrated the ideas.

Obtuse and acute angles, diagonal and intersecting lines.

Symmetry and pattern

Area, multiplication, tessellation

Right angles, symmetry, and color patterns.

Major math concepts were needed to insure high winds wouldn't turn this sculpture into a death trap.

My guys hadn't been to this museum since they were little. As in G was in a stroller little. Here they are way too grown up. Sigh.

We had some time to kill before the tour so this is what we did...

Playing around the falls

Don't let them fool you...

It's usually more like this.

When the tour was over we checked out some of our favorite pieces.

Art is fun!

Samurai!

Thunderbird Totem

Afterwards we headed over to the McWane Center for some quality science time!

Micro-schooling

School has been going much smoother around here since our reboot. Everyone is happy with more music, more projects, more fun and less busywork. Especially me! Which is strange when you think about it, because straying away from a curriculum puts lots more work and strain on the teacher. It is worth it when your seven year old asks to listen to the cell song again because he didn't learn all the words yet. Score!

This week our lessons have been tiny. Minute. Micro in fact. It started off with this song:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-zafJKbMPA8&feature=colike

Is that not the coolest? The boys LOVED it and so we kicked off our study on the smaller things in life. Just to keep them in the cell mindset we colored these pictures from Crayola's web site:

http://www.crayola.com/free-coloring-pages/print/human-cell-coloring-page/

Tomorrow for supper we are having something fun to cell-ebrate the end of the week. A animal cell pizza like this one from Journey 2 Excellence.

We have been talking about size and scale with the boys for math, so one of the assignments this week fit right in with our Lego Club assignment. This week we were supposed to build something that was a smaller scale than a mini-figure. C picked out an Egyptian tomb.

Homeschool Re-boot

I have been a unit study kind of gal for the last five years. For you public-schoolers, unit studies are in depth studies of things, events, or issues that your child is interested in, or that you think they might be. For five years, this method worked for my kids individually and as a group. We have studied a huge variety of scientific, historic and artistic ideas seamlessly as part of our life. If they wanted to know about chocolate, we studied chocolate, but we also studied the chemistry of how it is produced, the South and Central American cultures that first used it, the math ideas behind cost of production and profit margins, the European places that are now famous for their chocolate and then cooked up some chocolatey goodness.



This year, we all (kids included) flipped out and bought curriculum. Blame it on having a teenager for the first time, blame it on this being my seven year homeschooling itch, blame it on aliens reprogramming us, but for some reason we all panicked. I think for me it was two words that loom just nine months away - HIGH SCHOOL - and for the kids, well, they said they would like for school to have an end. HA! Now some of our new books have been great for us (New World Explorers), some of it has been okay for us (Marvel's Math for Second Grade) and some of it has been dreadful (5th Grade McMillan Math Text). Unfortunately much of it has been dead boring. School for the first time has taken on the look of deepest punishment; sad faces, groans, crying and anger.

One of the hardest, but best, things about homeschooling is recognizing when something is NOT working and being able to say, "I don't have to keep doing the same thing for no reason. If this is NOT working for MY family. We don't have to keep digging ourselves into this hole!"

We have been life learning this week (thank you week of flu germs) and they have LOVED learning again; chemistry, writing, art, design, cooking, math, history... They have come to me with a million questions and I have looked up about 999,995 answers. I didn't know the melting point of dark chocolate (high quality is 93*F), the heat at which a body denigrates (1600-1800*F), or the reason that certain smells are bad and others good depending on the person (thank you Medical News Today!). I am happy to report that I did know that outdoor planting season here begins March 22nd. Yeah me!

Their lack of love of this kind of school has pushed me to remember that I am in charge of this show! If these materials are causing my kids to hate learning and life, then there is something wrong with the materials, not them!

"The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn. " ~Alvin Toffler

So this week, I am unlearning and relearning what school looks like at our house.

Debember 2011

 December held our first try outs for a play. A and G were both excited about the idea, but C opted out. My middle kid that LIVES in costumes and play acts all the time? Yep that one. Anyway, after some initial nerves, they both made the cut! Wizard of Oz, here we come!

 Christmas Eve at my Mom and Dad's is always a blast. We were lucky enough to get Cris to come as well as Dolores' cousin Lizette.

 These necklaces are ones the boys designed for me as a Christmas present with a little help from Mom. G's is the shorter and C's is the longer. They both picked wings for me. :o)

 Lou's office party is one of the few times of the year that we get to dress up.

 I checked an item off my Day Zero list; see the Nutcracker Suite.

 G's Cub Scout pack marched in the parade.Since they were near the front, they also got to watch it!

 Our church Christmas Play.

 Our Tree

Roamschoolers' Dirty Santa - SO fun!

 Galaxy of Lights in Huntsville